


Scientific Observations of Spirits

by Accidentalshipper



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Diary/Journal, Gen, Ghosts, Preview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-09 12:58:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15267999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Accidentalshipper/pseuds/Accidentalshipper
Summary: Lena's notebook.Part of the PALL universe.





	Scientific Observations of Spirits

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't read 'In Family we Trust', this story won't make any sense. This is merely a preview for the sequel, so feel free to skip it if you want.

##  **Scientific Observations of Spirits**

_-Page 1_

**Warning!!**

If you are reading this journal, you are either a thief or have stumbled upon a property that is not yours. Please leave this notebook in locker 1266 of National City Central Station, and I will not hold this invasion of privacy and/or theft against you. If you fail to comply with this request and/or if you read beyond this page, I will find you and personally ensure that your life is destroyed and completely ruined. Have a good day.

 

~~Current as of August 2017~~

~~Current as of September 2017~~

Current as of October 2017

 

***

_-Page 3_

Introduction

The following are a set of rules, patterns and consistencies I have been able to observe through my extended interactions with people who have died, hereafter to be referred to as ‘Ghosts’. These interactions also frequently involved an overly excitable man, hereafter to be referred to as ‘The PALL’, and a police officer of steadfast conviction but with no verbal filter, hereafter to be referred to as ‘The Detective’. The inclusion of less than scientific verbiage in this journal is due to the fact that its contents are for my own personal use, so as to find some logic behind the paranormal occurrences I’ve been subjected to. If someone has an issue with the occasional use of informal language in this scientific journal, then I would like to once again remind you that you are a criminal and as soon as I find you, your life will be over.

 

***

_-Page 4_

**Rules**

This section only contains that of which I can be certain of beyond any reasonable doubt. In the brackets are the sources of the information, displayed as (Name of Ghost; date of death.)

 1) Ghosts are the physical manifestations of people that have died, and for reasons currently unknown, they can only be seen and heard by me.

> 1a) Their appearance is the same as the age and/or the state they were in when they died, and does not change over time. However, the injuries that caused their death and/or the traces of it, such as scars, bullet holes, etcetera, do not appear. (Mother, Supergirl; May 27th 2017)
> 
> 1b) Rule 1a does not apply to clothing. Ghosts either wear their favourite outfit (Jack Spheer; April 18th 2017) or something they were comfortable with in life. (Rachel Sturridge; October 3rd 2016)

 2) A ghost always has an objective, or a reason to be, if you will. This can range from ensuring the wellbeing of a family member, to watching Supergirl get shot and laughing at it like a callous and heartless bitch.

> 2a) These objectives, or the combination of the ghost and their objective, are informally referred to by myself and The PALL as ‘cases’.
> 
> 2b) Recently, it has been discovered that ghosts aren’t always immediately aware what their objective is. (Ronnie Maverick; August 7th 2017)

 3) When ghosts fulfil their objective, they ‘pass on’. This means that their essence morphs into light, before that light separates into several orbs of approximately 7 inches in diameter, which then fade away. The meaning and/or use of this phenomenon are still unknown.

> 3a) A ghost merely needs to _believe_ that they fulfilled their objective, for them to pass on. (Father; September 5 th 2003, Mother; May 27th 2017)

 4) When a ghost’s body is somehow brought back to life, the ghost in question will appear see-through and static-like a few times, before visually imploding and subsequently disappearing. (John Corben; February 12th 2017, Supergirl; May 27th 2017)

 5) Ghosts cannot move or lift objects, nor can they make physical contact with living people. It would appear, however, that they can choose how their essence interacts with certain surfaces, seeing as they can walk through walls but are still capable of sitting in chairs.

 6) Ghosts have the ability to instantly travel to places they’ve been to before or know very well, although as I understand it, this takes a certain amount of practice. (Father; September 5th 2003, Samantha Carr; March 10th 2016)

 7) In certain cases, a ghost will be able to see into the future, which myself and The PALL refer to as ‘visions’. (Father; September 5th 2003, Huang Fu; May/June 2015, Ronnie Maverick; August 7th 2017) This occurs shortly after their death and only when a person close to them dies, which is the image they will see. (see: ‘Open Questions’)

> 7a) It has been proven that their visions can be changed.
> 
> 7b) Visions may be seen more than once. (Father; September 5th 2003) The requirements for this to occur, are still unknown.

 8) Aliens can also turn into ghosts. They seem to adhere to the same rules as their human counterparts. (King Lar Gand, date of death unknown)

 9) A ghost can manifest itself as early as five minutes after a person has died. (Mother; May 27th 2017)

 

 

***

_-Page 11_

**Open Questions**

This section contains certain things I am still uncertain of. This can range from questions for which there’s insufficient proof to support the hypothesis, to questions for which there is no hypothesis in place at all.

 

_-The Question of mere Existence_

This deals with the burning question; Why do people turn into ghosts in the first place? While I can see the irony in trying to give a scientific explanation to the existence of ghosts, I still refuse to believe that their appearances are random.

It would seem unlikely that everyone who dies automatically turns into a ghost, because that would mean that anyone who has ever lived and died would still be walking the streets today. And that would be statistically impossible without every square inch of the earth being filled with ghosts. It could still be possible that there is a limit on how long one can be a ghost, however Jimmy Olsen was a ghost for fifteen years. So even if that time is close to the limit, the streets would presumably still be a lot more crowded than I see them every day. Therefore, the most logical conclusion would be that only some people turn into ghosts, but that begs the next question: what would be the criteria?

Considering all ghosts have an objective, one might think that that would be the standard: You need to have something or someone keeping you here. And while that would explain the lack of ghosts that lived during the 18th century walking the streets, it still seems improbable, since almost everyone leaves someone they care about behind when they die, concluding once again that the streets would be a lot more crowded than they are now. The most likely hypothesis, in my opinion, is that people turn into ghosts when they’ve died abruptly and/or prematurely. And while several ghosts that I have helped seem to fit this criteria (Rachel Sturridge, Samantha Carr, King Lar Gand, Harold Jackson), others seem to contradict it (see ‘The Corben Conundrum’ below).

Between the criteria of someone to care for, abrupt or premature death and a potential time limit on being a ghost, it is very likely that the answer is a combination of these (and potentially other) factors. However, due to the vast amount of variables involved, it is impossible to draw a definitive conclusion at this time.

 

- _The Coma Hypothesis_

John Corben was a ghost from October 14th to October 17th 2016\. Instead of passing on, he was brought back to life as described in Rule 4. However, he claims that he was in a coma during that time, despite remembering his activities as a ghost. This would lead me to conclude that people don’t just turn into ghosts when they die, but also when they’re in a coma. However, since John Corben is the only case of this happening, and since the man’s word is the only guarantee that he actually _was_ in a coma, I consider this rule to be unconfirmed.

 

- _The Corben Conundrum_

This problem ties in closely with the Question of mere Existence. John Corben died on February 12th 2017 in a Kryptonite explosion. However, unlike the time when he was (allegedly) in a coma, he did _not_ turn into a ghost. And while this was beneficial to my sanity, it also made absolutely no sense.

In theory, we should be able to resolve the Question of mere Existence by establishing the difference between the time John Corben _did_ turn into a ghost, and the time he _did not_ turn into a ghost. The problem is that there was no significant difference. He was still an alien-hating bigot who wanted to see all aliens expelled from earth and see me suffer for preventing that. Both his death and his alleged comatose state came about abruptly and prematurely (age-wise at least). If we assume that his comatose state actually happened, then the only difference was that the time that he did _not_ turn into a ghost, was when he died. And you don’t need an MIT doctorate to see how that makes no sense. The second time around there was Kryptonite involved, but that was also the case with Supergirl, and it didn’t stop _her_ from turning into a ghost. The only possible theory I could think of, was that people don’t turn into ghosts when they die in an explosion, perhaps because their bodies are disintegrated or something. But then the August 7 th explosion happened, putting me back at square one. Lovely.

 

_-The Appearance Continuity_

Ah, yes… finally one that doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out. This simply concerns the amount of time between someone’s death and their appearance as a ghost. As mentioned in Rule 9, it has been established that it can be as little as five minutes. Due to the lack of other direct cases though, I can’t yet confirm whether this varies per ghost.

 

_-The Premonition Variable_

And right back into the gloominess. Thanks to my own interactions with ghosts, as well as second-hand recounts from my father, it has been established with fair certainty that ghosts will only see the future if someone they care about dies. Or at least, that was the established theory from November 2016 until last May (2017). But due to certain events, the question has arisen whether premonitions can regard deaths in general, or whether it is restricted to suicides. Personally, I would presume that restriction _not_ to be the case, since my father would have already noticed this pattern from the ghosts he had spoken to. But since I can no longer confirm that with him, this is mere speculation, and therefore this question remains unresolved.

 

_-How, and why me?_

It sounds childish, I know, but it’s a logical question. We live in a globally connected society; if seeing ghosts was a widespread phenomenon _surely_ someone would have taken notice? Even if we assume that everyone else who sees ghosts keeps quiet, or gets locked up in an institution. Hell, let’s assume there _is_ no one else, it still begs the question; how? How do I see these people when no one else does? Sure, I’m very smart, (and that’s not me bragging, just check the academic record books at MIT; I think I only left room for two other people in there) but a higher intellect isn’t really a sufficient explanation for _seeing ghosts,_ for crying out loud. I mean, lots of people are smart. My brother was probably as smart as I was. A terrible chess player, sure, but other than that he was a genius. I remember I had a CAT-scan done once (a rogue baseball, I believe I was sixteen), but there was nothing out of the ordinary, so I can’t have abnormal brain activity or anything like that. As stated above; some of these questions don’t have a hypothesis and this would be one of them. I guess it may never have one.

 

_-The ‘Passing on’ Paradox_

Another one that will probably never have a hypothesis nor a definitive answer, simply because there is no way to know for sure. It’s like when people ask ‘what happens after you die?’ Which of course if you’re a scientist or you know, a rational person, you will answer with ‘nobody knows.’ I realise the irony there, since I now _do_ know what happens to some people after they die, but this only means that the unanswerable question moves one step further: What happens when ghosts pass on? The correct answer of course being: ‘nobody knows’. And in this case, no one actually _will_ know.

Of course, religious people will try and tell you anyway… But I’m not going there anymore! Due to recent events, I will refrain from ridiculing religion. Even though it’s illogical, pretentious, outdated, and… okay, yeah, I’ll stop now.

 

***

_-Page 25_

**Index**

The following is a list of ghosts I’ve seen or helped, successfully or not, in the order I encountered them. In brackets are their dates of death and their dates of ‘passing on’.

 

-Father (September 5th 2003 – May 27th 2017)  
-Huang Fu (May/June 2015 – July 31st 2015)  
-Mona Smith (unknown – November 25th 2016)  
-John Corben (October 12th 2016?/February 12th 2017 – N/A)  
-Rachel Sturridge (October 3rd 2016 – October 28th 2016)  
-Henry James Olsen (2001? – November 5th 2016)  
-Samantha Carr (March 10th 2016 – April 19th 2017)  
-Rafael Santos (May 2nd 2013 – March 14th 2017)  
-Jack Spheer (April 18th 2017 – April 19th 2017)  
-King Lar Gand (unknown – unknown)  
-Harold Jackson (May 11th 2017 – May 15th 2017)  
-Kerry Runnels (unknown – May 27th 2017)  
-Mother (May 27th 2017 – May 27th 2017)                 coffee stain  
-Supergirl (May 27th 2017 – N/A)                        coffee stain         coffee stain       coffee  
-Rocoffee stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee          stain                coffee stain         coffee stain coffee  
stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee   stain coffee stain            coffe stain         coffee stain        coffee stain coffee stain coffee  
stain coffee stain coffee stain   coffee stain coffee                coffee stain coffee stain                     coffee stain coffee stain   
coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee                         stain coffee stain coffee              stain coffee stain coffee                                                
stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee                  coffee stain coffee stain          coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain   
stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee             stain coffee stain coffee            stain coffee stain coffee stain coffee stain   
stain coffee stain coffee stain          coffee stain            coffee stain coffee                 stain coffee stain

***

 

“Shit!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Be careful with your hot beverages, kids.
> 
> Part 2 of The Paranormal Adventures of Lena Luthor starts this Thursday (UTC).


End file.
